The arts remain an important part of Dr. Sarah Fraser’s medical practice
The arts are always close at hand in Dr. Sarah Fraser’s practice of medicine.
Recently, as co-director of the medical humanities program at Dalhousie University, she invited medical students who had just finished their studies in cardiology to take part in a virtual drawing class.
“We had an artist from New Brunsick teach us how to draw an anatomically correct heart. It was a new perspective on the heart and a different challenge for students,” she said, adding most found it a relaxing and enjoyable exercise.
Fraser firmly believes the arts can help develop stronger clinical skills and promote critical thinking while also improving mental health. A few years ago, as a medical student finishing a rotation in emergency medicine, she proposed writing a series of reflective poems as a final project.
“The student projects are traditionally more scientific but my preceptor was receptive so I went ahead with my idea. My poems actually won a prize and I later published them. I hope fellow doctors and patients can gain something from them.”
A Merigomish native who graduated from St. Francis Xavier University with a degree in biology, she went on to McGill University in Montreal where her studies focused on ecology and endangered birds.
“I wasn’t able to find a job that challenged me in the ways I was looking for and I thought maybe I could have more impact helping people so I applied to medical school,” she said.
While working as a volunteer at Aberdeen Hospital, she once watched a physician drain an abscess.
“My job was more about changing sheets and filling water jugs but a doctor asked me if I wanted to see how it was done and I was interested. I actually fainted but luckily that never happened again.”
In considering family medicine, she shadowed Dr. Aaron Smith who had a practice in Westville and was intrigued by the variety of work and the relationships between patient and physician.
These days she is still recovering from a concussion incurred during a cycling accident in August. While hoping she will soon be back to her family practice at Millbrook First Nations, she is doing what she can on the creative side as well as learning a lot about concussions.
“It has been hard being off during COVID when you know how badly medical people are needed but my recovery is progressing and I’m confident I will be back soon.”
Fraser, who had a residency at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and recently worked in Yellowknife, has always been interested in the challenges of practicing medicine in rural areas. We are struggling with staff shortages so there are frustrations but it is also rewarding and motivating.”
To illustrate her point, she recalls experiences from her time in Yellowknife.
“Working in Yellowknife, where there is no MRI equipment, you have to call Edmonton and convince the people there that you need to transport a patient. That is frustrating when you know how badly that MRI is needed but you have to wait.”
Early in the COVID pandemic, Fraser was working as a hospitalist at St. Martha’s Hospital in Antigonish. She explains a hospitalist provides care for patients while in hospital.
“It is a newer model of care that is becoming quite common in Canada and is wellestablished in other places. The family doctor provides care for the patient until he or she is admitted and at that point a hospitalist takes over. On release the patient is turned back over to the family doctor with information for outpatient follow-up.”
Fraser conceded some patients are initially uneasy at changing doctors at a stressful time but added most are reassured by the fact that the hospitalist is available all day whereas a family doctor spends most of the day seeing patients outside the hospital.
Hospitalists generally work seven days on, seven days off with a few on-call shifts included in the rotation.
Fraser did not see much COVID activity during her time at St. Martha’s, nor later in Yellowknife.
“Both communities had a low incidence of COVID while I was there but there was always the possibility that could change and we had to make sure we were as ready as possible.”
While in Nova Scotia, she also spent time taking patient calls to public health.
“Many people working in health care stepped in wherever they were needed to help because it has been such a challenging time. It was quite surreal to be talking to patients and at the same time waiting for a new study to come out, advising us how to treat potential blood clots.”
She admits she did not see Omicron coming.
“I was like most people, hopeful and grateful that we were coming out of this but in hindsight, it makes perfect sense that the virus mutated. It has certainly been a learning experience to see how quickly that happened and how it has spread.”
Now living in Halifax, Fraser is also an editor with Canadian Family Physician journal.
“I’ve always loved reading and writing. I wrote for teenage papers and campus papers, as well as journaling and writing poetry, so writing and medicine fit very well for me.”
She added she has a special interest in incorporating more of the humanities into the journal, believing that reading literature, for example, exposes doctors to other people’s experiences and points of view, making them more empathetic.
“It is about making better clinicians on the one hand and creating better mental health for clinicians and practitioners on the other. I do some interviews, some editing. I am also involved in the cover art so it is diverse and interesting.”
One of her more recent interviews is with Ontario physician and award-winning poet Dr. Shayne Neilsen who hopes his poems help his colleagues better understand mental illness, including his own. Fraser, who has her own blog, notes physicians such as Jock Murray, who founded the program in 1992, and Dr. Ron Stewart have contributed greatly to the humanities in medicine at Dalhousie.
“They are very good mentors to those of us who are interested in humanities in medicine today. The field is growing.”
She noted another codirector of the program is Dr. Wendy Stewart of New Brunswick. A neurologist, Stewart is interested in how music and art impact the brain.
In talking about the broad fields of medicine open to today’s physicians, Fraser pointed to St. Martha’s Dr. Maureen Allen.
“She is an emergency room physician but she is also trained in treating chronic pain and in palliative care.
It is wonderful to be able to draw on all that knowledge when treating a patient. The more we learn, the more help we can be.”